The Way of Love…
When love is the way we know that God is the source of us all and we are brothers and sisters, children of God. My brothers and sisters that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family. Dr. King was right, we must discover love, the redemptive power of love and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world.” – Bishop Michael Curry
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huZN6MYuJKs[/embedyt]
They say 29 million people watched the royal wedding when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were married. I’m so glad so many tuned in, because when they did they heard Bishop Michael Curry use that platform to preach the gospel.
They heard him talk about the way of love. Real love.
Real Love
Here’s what I believe: I believe the world around us knows what real love looks like.
Despite what culture tries to parade as love in front of us, despite the barrage of messaging from movies, tv, commercials, music and social media that says love is all about image, sex, and beauty, I think the world knows what real love looks like.
I believe this is true because I’ve seen the movie Frozen like a hundred times! That’s what happens when you’re the dad of 2 daughters 10 and under!
What’s the main plot of Frozen? Elsa has a frozen heart. She has pushed away everyone around her including the one person that loves her more than anyone else in the world, her very own sister. And despite her bad behavior, despite how mean she was to Ana, despite every attempt to drive her away Ana was still willing to sacrifice her very life to save her sister. And that act of true love melted her frozen heart! Sacrificial love was the only thing that could save Elsa!
I believe this is true because I’ve seen Beauty and the Beast a hundred times! Both the animated version and the new real-life version.
And what happens in Beauty and the Beast? The Beast does everything within his power to drive everyone around him as far away from him as possible. Even Belle, who at first stayed at the castle of the Beast in order to save her father… her first act of sacrificial love… begins to care for the Beast, despite his appearance, despite his bad behavior, despite everything he’s done to push her away… it’s her love, her sacrificial love, that changes the Beast back into a prince before the last petal falls to the ground!
Disney has figured this one out. The secret to the plot of every great story is the story of sacrificial love. They’ve figured it out. Love is the way!
And when you tell the story of sacrificial love you capture the heart of every person.
[Tweet “The story of sacrificial love captures the heart of every person.”]Can People Change?
Yet the reality we too often live into and hold onto is the perception that people can’t change.
That there are some that even the greatest love cannot reach. And that more often than not we feel like we’re the ones that are unreachable, unlovable, hopeless and alone.
We’ve talked about this idea before… we live in a world where people have never been more connected but have never felt more alone.
[Tweet “We live in a world where people have never been more connected but have never felt more alone.”]Why is that?
We could blame it on technology. We could talk about how our homes have alleyways, garages and privacy fences. We could say it’s because we work longer hours, have busier schedules and all that. But really, why is that?
Why is it that we live in a world where people have never been more connected but have never felt more alone? Why is it that according to research released in 2018 that one half of all Americans say that they experience loneliness?
Is it because we’ve forgotten how to love, really love each other?
Is it because we’ve forgotten that “love is the way?”
As long as we refuse to live into the way of love that Jesus taught us, we will continue to live in this old world. But Jesus is calling us to make things on earth as they are in heaven. Jesus is calling us to love different. Jesus is calling us to tell the whole world the greatest story of sacrificial love.
It’s the kind of love that can melt a heart of stone. It’s the kind of love that has the power to change a beast into a prince.
Remember the Way of Love
The church in Corinth had forgotten that love is the way.
So when Paul hears three years later that this church that he started, this church that he loved, this church that he cared so much for had become so caught up in pursuing the wrong things, had forgotten the way of love, he writes to remind them, to remind us, that the way we should be after, the way we should be pursuing, is the way of love.
At the very end of 1 Corinthians 13 and the beginning of 14, he crystalizes everything he’s been trying to say.
“Three things will last forever – Faith, hope, and love – and the greatest of these is love. Let love be your highest goal.”
– 1 Corinthians 13.13-14.1a, NLT
Faith…
Pursue faith. Trusting in, believing in God.
By putting all their focus on the spiritual gifts, on power, the church in Corinth had put their faith in the wrong things. They put their faith in the gifts of God instead of in God!
I just wonder if that rings true for any of us today. How often do we put our faith, our confidence, in the gifts we’ve received from God instead of in God?
[Tweet “How often do we put our faith, our confidence, in the gifts we’ve received from God instead of in God?”]Hope…
We need hope. Especially in a world when so many people are living without hope. We need hope. We need stories of hope. And we have the greatest hope.
We have a hope that will last when all else fails. We have a hope that stands up under the weight of hopelessness. We have a hope so great, so strong, so unshakable that even when our world is falling apart the Hope we have holds onto us even when we can’t hold on to Hope.
That’s the kind of Hope we have. Our Hope has a name. It’s Jesus. And Jesus will hold on to us even when we can’t hold onto Him. That’s real hope.
It’s the kind of hope that only exists because of Love.
[Tweet “Our Hope has a name. It’s Jesus.”]Love…
Real love. Not superficial love. Not conditional love. Not temporary love. Not measurable love.
Paul says that the greatest of these three is LOVE.
Many people have wondered why and more often than not people have said that the reason love is the greatest is because love is eternal. They say we won’t need faith in heaven because we will see Jesus face to face. And they’re right about that.
They say we won’t need hope in Heaven because we’ll have what we’ve been hoping for. You don’t hope for what you already have. And they’re right about that.
But I don’t think that’s why Paul says love is the greatest. And I may be wrong about this. I don’t know. We’ll have to ask Paul one day when we all get to Heaven! But I wonder, I just wonder if the reason Paul said that “the greatest of these is love” is because love, real love is sacrificial.
And sacrificial love is at the heart of the gospel story. It’s the heart of the story that touched and changed Paul’s heart.
[Tweet ““The greatest of these is love” is because love, real love, is sacrificial love.”]So what if we pursued this love? What if we pursued the love that is pursuing us?
This was Paul’s desire for his friends in Corinth. And this same desire holds true for us today,
Sacrificial Love
Some people say people can’t change. But Paul changed. The sacrificial love of Jesus radically changed Paul’s life from disciple killer to disciple maker!
It’s the heart of the story that has touched and changed so many hearts over the past 2000 years.
It’s the story of a God who loves you SO much that He GAVE His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. John 3.16
This is love. It’s the story of Jesus, sacrificing His life for you and for me so that we could live.
The greatest of these is love. Because it was love that led Jesus to the cross. It was love, sacrificial love, that melts our frozen hearts. That transforms us from the beast we were apart from Christ into sons and daughters of the King of kings.
The Redemptive Power of Love
“Dr. King was right, we must discover love, the redemptive power of love and when we do that we will make of this old world a new world.” – Bishop Michael Curry
Paul believed people could change. That’s why he wrote this Fatherly Letter we call 1 Corinthians. Paul believed they could change because he had changed. His frozen heart has been melted by the love of Jesus. He had been transformed from a beast people were terrified of into a disciple of Jesus by the sacrificial love of Jesus on the cross.
You can change.
We can change.
And we can change the world around us with this love.
[Tweet “We can change the world around us with love.”]May we “Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love. Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it, because it does!” – 1 Corinthians 13.13-14.1a – MSG
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